May be thinking ahead but what do you think of the weapon choices?
-Normal Weapons-
Plasma Repeater - Fast firing light weapon. Fast travel speed and good range. Fair damage. Used on the wing guns. Low energy drain. Cycles
Plasma Cannon- Prometheus ROF heavy weapon. Fast travel speed and short range. High damage on hull, medium on shields. Used on Fuselage. High energy drain.
-Specialty Weapons-
Irradiated Plasma Repeater - Medium ROF light weapon. Fast travel speed and good range. Good damage, can damage subsystems to a great effect. Used on wings. Medium power drain.
Positron Cannon - Slow ROF heavy weapon. Slow travel speed and short range. Horrendous hull damage, extreme shield damage, murderous to subsystems. Used on Fuselage. Extreme power drain.
The Empire has a sort of affinity for brutal weapons. Call it crazy but they have a good reason to considering their ancestors went through hell... and a bit more liberal use of what they had could have saved millions of lives. This resulted in the wide spread use of 'Irradiated' weaponry. Weapons that generate or release high amounts of radiation upon impact. The galactic races find this usage of radiation weapons to be highly disturbing and are wary around the Empire for their use of such weapons... This culminated in the unveiling of the Positron Cannon, the Empire's most dreaded and feared weapon. An anti-matter of sorts weapon, it annihilates matter and releases extreme amounts of gamma radiation... killing entire ship crews and obliterating its internal systems.
To give an estimation of the power of the Positron Cannon in FS2... a single 4 fighter wing armed with these could probably kill a Cruiser without using missiles in about 30 seconds. The weapon is just THAT damaging but the power requirements are extreme and the projectile relatively slow. For dogfighting you should use it at close range but be careful of the Area of Effect blast it has.